Calgary’s school boards are celebrating scores above provincial averages, but one parent group is giving math a thumbs down.

The Calgary Board of Education and the Calgary Catholic School District released their 2015-16 results for provincial achievement tests (PATs) and diploma exams at separate news conferences Friday, with both districts exceeding benchmarks for acceptable (50 per cent) and standard of excellence (80 per cent) in core subjects.

In the CBE, students in Grades 6 and 9 outperformed the province at the acceptable standard and the standard of excellence on 18 out of 20 measures. In the Catholic system, all Grade 6 PATs written in English and French and on Grade 9 PATs written in English, students scored above the provincial average.

The CBE highlighted an overall improvement in Grade 6 results, high marks in Grade 12 sciences and better scores in key target areas such as math and sciences.

“We’re very pleased to celebrate the results. Overall our students are demonstrating strong academic achievements,” said David Stevenson, chief superintendent at the CBE.

Board chairperson Joy Bowen-Eyre agreed but said they’ll continue to look to areas for improvement. “The results are exceptional. But we also know there are areas we need to focus on and we’re committed to doing that.

One of those areas is mathematics. While the CBE’s math results are above the provincial average, the proportion of students failing to meet an acceptable standard is basically unchanged from five years ago. In Grade 6, 25 per cent of students are failing to achieve 50 per cent on the exam. At the Grade 9 level, the situation is worse with nearly one-third of enrolled students failing to achieve that.

The CBE’s Grade 6 math results show 75 per cent meet the acceptable standard compared to the provincial average of 72.2. In Grade 9, 67.9 per cent meet the acceptable standard compared to the provincial average of 67.8.

“In the CBE, we’re seeing improvements … but we want to sustain that and keep our eye on the ball,” said Jeannie Everett, superintendent of learning.

Lisa Davis, with Calgary Association of Parents and School Councils, said the data shows students are continuing to struggle with math.

“We now have more children failing math than achieving excellence — by a very significant margin. The opposite is happening at CCSD,” Davis said.

“The CBE can’t fix a problem they won’t acknowledge, and in the interim thousands of children continue to struggle with the discovery math approach CBE continues to use. It is the reason why more parents are engaging expensive private tutors, a situation which creates unequal access and results in a two-tiered education.”

Education Minister David Eggen is also concerned about Alberta Grade 6 math results. “This is why we are taking many steps to improve achievement. We are working with post-secondary institutions to improve training for new teachers. We have also clarified expectations around basic math skills,” he said.

“We are also launching a six-year process to develop new curriculum in Alberta. Mathematics and numeracy skills will be cornerstones of that important work.”

In the Calgary Catholic system, 87 per cent of Grade 6 students achieved the acceptable standard in math while 88.1 met that standard on the Grade 9 exam.

“We have seen a trend of consistently high performance and we’re excited that has continued this year,” said Gary Strother, chief superintendent of the Calgary Catholic School District.

(Readers should note that in comparing the two systems, the CBE reported results based on all students enrolled in a grade, while the Catholic board results are based on the number of students writing the tests.)

Both school districts posted high marks in the Grade 12 diploma exams, with the CBE highlighting particularly strong results in biology, chemistry and physics. Students met the standard of excellence in 10 out of 11 exams.

“We’re so proud of our high school students. They outperformed in almost every category than the provincial average,” said Everett.

In the Catholic system, students scored higher than the provincial average in six out of 11 subjects.

It highlighted diploma exam results that surpassed provincial standards of excellence in biology, chemistry, physics, social studies and French language arts.

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